Aftermath and Aftershock
by GoForNikki
Summary: An Earthquake may tear the Camden's apart UPDATE! CHAPTER 4 IS UP!
1. Ordinary Turns Sour

Title: Aftermath and Aftershock Rating: PG Summary: An earthquake may tear the Camden family apart  
  
Lucy was upstairs finishing folding the laundry. She and Simon were watching the twins. Lucy went down into the kitchen. Simon sat at the table swirling a spoon through the pudding that they ate for desert the day before. "Simon!" Lucy yelled furiously. "What?" he asked finally noticing that Lucy was in the room. "The twins" Lucy screamed throwing her hands in the air, then she noticed two people. The twins were eating pudding with their hands and it was everywhere. Lucy laughed.  
  
"I'll get them cleaned up, you clean up down here" Lucy ordered pointing to Simon. She picked the twins up and went to the upstairs bathroom. Suddenly the ground began to shake violently. The thrust threw the three of them into a corner. Lucy protected the twins with her arms and ducked her head until the shaking stopped about ten minutes later. Lucy got up running to her parents room and setting the twins on the bed.  
  
She had experienced many earthquakes but none like that. Lucy took the twins by the hand. She stopped in front of the stairs. It was exactly what Lucy knew would happen. The stairs weren't stable enough to walk down. Lucy carefully stepped onto the first stair. The ground began to shake again, so Lucy grabbed the twins and threw her and them into the corner of the wall. The tremor had ended as soon as it began. There was no chance for the staircase now however.  
  
"Simon!" Lucy called out. There was no answer. "Simon!" she yelled again. There was absolutely no sound. "I'm scared" Sam said. "Yeah scared" David repeated. "Me too" Lucy said absently. "Stay here" she ordered, and they obeyed. Lucy ran to her parent's room, grabbed the phone, and dialed 911, luckily the phone still worked. Lucy was put on hold for about ten minutes and then she heard a voice on the other end. "Yes, may I help you?" the lady asked politely. "Yeah, my brothers and I are trapped upstairs with unusable stairs, my other brother is down stairs, but I don't know where he is" Lucy said quickly in one breath  
  
"We'll get to you as soon as possible, but many people need police service" the lady said. "I understand" Lucy agreed. "Good day ma'am" the lady on the other end said. "Wait!" Lucy screamed into the receiver finally remembering something. "Is Kevin Kinkerk from the station, is he okay?" she asked worried that something terrible happened to him." Kevin is safe he's in the main offices" the lady answered when she got back to the phone.  
  
Lucy was washed over with relief. "Thank you" Lucy said hanging up the phone. She went to the hallway and took the twins and stayed in her parent's room, waiting for help to arrive.  
  
Eric buried himself out of the rubble that used to be the grocery store. He searched for his wife and his daughter They had gone to the store to pick up some things when the earthquake hit. Brown hair suddenly emerged from a scrap of a former shelf. "Ruthie!" he yelled. "Over here!" Ruthie screamed. Eric limped over to where he saw Ruthie. Ruthie was holding her left arm in pain. "I think I broke my arm" she stated painfully. "Other than that you're okay?" Eric asked. "I think so" Ruthie stated.  
  
"Eric!" Eric turned around to see Annie run toward him. She had some blood coming from the side of her head, but she seemed fine other than that. Once the three were reunited they headed toward the hospital.  
  
Author's Note: What do you think so far? Please R&R and I'll be sure to update soon 


	2. The Rescue Stage

Chapter 2: The Rescue Stage  
  
Note: Sorry it took so long to update, I promise I'll get better with that  
  
Swimminkindofgirl- thanks for the review! I will be sure to finish this story, I won't end it suddenly  
  
Evelen5: Your review is much appreciated!! Please continue reading the story, I hope you like it  
  
Kevin Kinkerk standing with his brother Ben in front of the Camden house, the house still stood but cracks ran everywhere. "What's the story here?" Kevin asked a fellow police officer concerned. "A female and two minors upstairs, a male downstairs, location unknown" the officer answered to him. "Thanks" Kevin said slowly and carefully walking inside. Lucy sat with Sam and David above the stairs. "We're going to get you down" Kevin announced. Lucy smiled. They all seemed okay. A few cuts and scrapes but nothing serious.  
  
Kevin spotted an air vent on the living room ceiling. "Do you know how to get to the living room air vent?" Kevin asked praying to God that she did. Lucy nodded. "I'll get a latter, for you to climb onto" he said, watching as Lucy took the twins by the hand and walked out of his sight. Kevin ran outside quickly. Spotting Ben, he screamed "Ben I need a latter!" Ben looked over to where Kevin was and nodded. He ran to the fire truck, grabbed a latter and handed it to Kevin.  
  
Kevin ran inside just as the air vent in the living room was being opened. "Hold on, Luce!" Kevin yelled setting the latter right under the vent. Lucy stepped down three steps and then stopped. She waited until Sam and David were firmly on the ground and then climbed down the rest of the way. Lucy literally jumped into Kevin's arms once she reached the ground. A police officer came inside the living room and walked over to Lucy. Lucy could feel her face fall as the officer approached her. "Do you know where the other young man in this situation might be, ma'am?" he asked politely. "He was in the kitchen before the earthquake" Lucy said, hoping that was of help. The sooner she was reunited with her family the better. Everyone walked into the kitchen. Lucy gasped at the sight she took in. The kitchen was trashed. Columns were down, everything was tumbled over and there was debris everywhere.  
  
"Simon!" Lucy yelled. There was no answer. "Simon!" she repeated again. All was silent. Lucy ran over a large pile of debris and froze. Simon was trapped between two columns and the refrigerator. "Over here" Lucy said coarsely. Several paramedics rushed to Simon's aid. Unable to watch, Lucy took the twins and went into the living room. Kevin followed, concerned. "I don't know anything!" Lucy cried. Kevin opened his mouth but Lucy started talking again. "How do I know if my family's okay?" she said barely above a whisper. Then she started to cry "Do you want a ride to the hospital?" Kevin asked softly, to avoid making Lucy cry harder. "Yeah" Lucy said barely above a whisper  
  
Eric was sitting in the waiting room of the hospital, while Annie was getting stitches, and Ruthie was having her arm examined. Eric was happy that they were both alright, but he was concerned for the rest of his family. Immediately after he thought that, he saw Lucy and the twins at the other end of the long hallway. As if on impact, he ran to them and hugged them for dear life. "Are you here to see Camden?" a doctor came out and asked Eric. "Yes" Eric answered. "He has many fractured and broken bones, but our biggest concern is the head trauma" the doctor told Eric.  
  
"Wait- he?" Eric asked suddenly confused. "You said you were here to see Camden" the doctor reminded. "Yeah, Annie and Ruthie Camden" Eric said. "My mistake, I thought you were here to see Simon Camden" the doctor said as he turned and walked away. Eric turned to Lucy and without him saying a word she nodded. Annie and Ruthie emerged from the hallway. Annie had stitches and Ruthie had a white cast on her left arm. Noticing the family, they walked over to where they were. Annie came and hugged Lucy tightly. "Thank God you're okay" Annie said overcome with relief  
  
"I was so scared" Lucy trembled as Annie eyed everyone in the waiting room. "Simon?" Annie asked noticing that he wasn't there. Lucy simply looked up at her mother and Annie understood. The Camden family, plus Kevin and Ben had nothing to do but wait.  
  
Buffalo, New York  
  
Mary entered a group of people who were huddled around one TV. "What's going on?" Mary asked curiously. Some guy turned around "There's an earthquake in California." He stated. "A big one too" another added. "Where in California" Mary asked concerned for her family. "It's centered in some town called Glenn Oak" a girl told her. Mary froze. "My family lives there" Mary said scared. "Good luck to them" a guy said. "Not very many buildings made it through that quake" he said with relief in his voice that he lived in New York and not California. Mary ran up a flight of stairs to her apartment, she grabbed the plane ticket to Glenn Oak she had yet to use. She grabbed some clothes threw it into a suit case and headed to the airport.  
  
Glenn Oak, California  
  
Lucy was fidgeting with her fingers. What could be taking so long? The doctors finally emerged from the room. Lucy looked for a sign of bad or good news on their face. Their faces remained emotionless. "He's awake now" the doctor said. Lucy raced into the room before anyone else could move. "Hey" Lucy said as she walked into Simon's room. "Hey" he said barely above a whisper. Lucy winced. In all their years together Simon had never been weak. Now she stared at him he was bruised and scraped with patches of broken bones everywhere  
  
"So how are you doing?" Lucy asked, not realizing how stupid the question was until after she said it. "How am I doing" Simon yelled "I'm lying in a hospital bed how do you think I'm doing!" he finished. Lucy then started to cry. "Luce, please" Simon whispered. "I need you to be strong." He finished with a smile. "Be strong Luce" he repeated, his voice starting to fade. "For me" and with those final words, Simon slipped back into a coma.  
  
Lucy walked out of the room thinking about what Simon said. Once she came back to the waiting room, her parents began to walk down the hall but Lucy stopped them. "He's in a coma again" she called after them. They stopped and turned around. Annie started balling uncontrollably. Lucy turned away so she wouldn't cry. She had to be strong, for Simon's sake and for hers.  
  
So what do you think? Please R&R and I'll be sure to update soon 


	3. Live and Let Live

(I just realized I never posted a disclaimer so here it is, I wish I did but alas I do not own anything)

Chapter 3 Live and Let Live

Once Mary arrived at the Glen Oak County Hospital, she knew something was wrong. Her family sat in the waiting room and they looked more sullen then she had ever seen them. Mary walked over to the group. "Hey" she said quietly. The family simultaneously looked up. Some of them smiled, some of them didn't have the heart to smile, but Mary knew they were happy to see her. She glanced at the faces of the family she had neglected to visit or even call. She remembered on the plane wondering if her family was even still alive.

Mary sat down next to Lucy who was twiddling her thumbs. Leave it to Lucy; she'll do anything to keep herself occupied. Suddenly a doctor walked out of a nearby room and Mary's mom shot up out of her seat and walked over to him. They were having a conversation but were too far away for Mary to hear what they were saying. She saw her mom nod and sadly walk back to the family. Mary's heart skipped a beat. Was there something wrong? Did Simon not make it? All these question were really getting to Mary so she looked up at her mom. "Is everything okay" Kevin asked beating her to it. "Yeah" Annie answered absently. "He isn't awake, but he's stabilized and they think we should go home and get some rest."

"Someone should stay here" Eric piped up. "Incase something happens." "You're right." Annie bit her lip. "I'll stay" Mary heard Lucy offer. "No" Eric shook his head. "You need to sleep, I'll stay" he said sitting back down in the waiting room chair. So that was it. Everyone went back to the house and not a word was spoken. Nobody cried and nobody mumbled to themselves or to how unfair god was being, even though Mary wanted to. They all went home and fell into a restless night sleep

The same dream occurred over and over again. It seemed so like-like that it scared her. The whole family was at the hospital, like they had been earlier that day. Only this time Lucy hears a loud painful scream. She runs into the hospital room where Simon had resided, and that was when the dream got weird. She was running to him, so she could help him but everytime she ran he got further and further away until he slipped out of view and into the darkness.

Lucy awoke with a start. Why was she doing this to herself? She had to stop thinking like this. Simon would be fine and when he was fine, she would be too. She looked over at Kevin next to her and snuggled against his chest for protection, she almost fell asleep too, until she heard the phone ring. Lucy jumped out of bed before it woke everybody else up and answered the phone. "Hello" she said breathlessly from running so fast

"Lucy?" it was Lucy's dad. This made her heart skip a beat, why was he calling? "What is it dad" Lucy said trying to sound casual but it ended up sounding like she was choking. "Something wrong- wake the family up get down here immediately" he said urgent and quickly. Off the end of the phone Lucy heard a desperate cry of a doctor for Eric to see him. "I have to go" he said and with that he hung up. No explanation, no but everything's going to be okay speech, nothing. She played the call over and over again in her head _Something's wrong _those are two words that you just do not want to hear. What could they mean?

Lucy ran over to the bed and shook Kevin awake. "What?" Kevin asked slightly snippity from being woken up. "Something's wrong we need to go to the hospital" Lucy said already running to the ladder that leads down to the garage. Lucy burst into the house, which woke up Ben who was sleeping on the couch. "Lucy what is it" he mumbled still half asleep. "Wake up, we need to get to the hospital!" she demanded. This woke Ben right up he jumped out of the couch like it was made of springs and ran with her upstairs to wake everyone else.

The ride to the hospital was filled with a sudden awkward tension. No words were spoken because everyone was too busy worrying. They arrived at the hospital after a drive that seemed to take forever. Lucy was the first one out of the car and was already running toward the hospital entrance. She rounded three corners and got a glare from two nurses before she found her dad. He was standing with his back against the wall and just staring into space. This scared Lucy. "Dad is everything okay?" she asked he broke his forward gaze to look at her and shook his head sadly. "They can't stabilize him" he said bluntly

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked her voice trembling slightly. "He won't react to the medication that they're giving him." Eric said followed by a deep breath. "They said if he doesn't take the medicine they doubt he'll last a week." This apparently was too much for Eric because he started to weep. As he started sobbing in a way that Lucy had never seen before, the rest of the family rounded the corner. After they were filled in with the devastating news, the room was eerily quiet. Lucy enveloped the silence; it gave her time to think.

"Why us" everybody looked over at her. She wasn't even aware that she had said it out loud until everyone was looking at her. Ben nodded in agreement. "Some families didn't even get injured." He shrugged. "Is this God's will?" she asked silently to her father, her dream of ministry sudden becoming a lie to her. She meant no disrespect but she didn't feel it was anyone's place to choose who lives and who dies. Stop it. Lucy told herself. You can't blame your faith for something incontrollable like an earthquake.

The doctor came out and walked over to the Camden's. Eric stood up. "Is everything okay?" he asked. Surprisingly, the doctor nodded. "He should wake up at any moment now" the doctor said. Eric sighed in relief. Simon was okay. He was going to be okay. He and the rest of the family slowly migrated to his room where he was starting to wake up. "Simon?" Eric asked as Simon woke up. There was no response at his end. "Son, are you okay" he said walking to the end of his bed. Simon looked up with a face contorted with confusion. "Who are you?" he asked impatiently.

AN: Sorry for the delay. School work and yadda, yadda, yadda, I'll try not to take so long with the nezt chapter.


	4. Hope Dies Last

Chapter 4- Hope Dies Last

Eric felt all of the blood rush to his head. He starred at his son in horror. "Simon, we're your parents" Eric half heard Annie say in his state of shock. "Oh" Simon said becoming rather interested in his fingernails. "You don't remember anything?" Eric heard himself say. Simon shrugged. "I know that my name is Simon, and you're my parents" he said smiling. Unfortunately this only made Eric feel worse. "Excuse me" he said suddenly as he left the room he looked at the doctor. "You never said he would lose his memory!" Eric spat, suddenly remembering his childhood hatred of hospitals.

"Mr. Camden" The doctor said folding his hands together in a matter of fact sort of way. "These side-effects usually occur with head injury" he finished, as if he knew everything and Eric knew nothing. Eric suddenly snapped. "This is not a side-effect this is my son's memory!" he screamed. With all of this pent up anger Eric suddenly punched out the doctor. Annie ran out of Simon's hospital room at the sound. "Eric!" she screeched. "I'm sorry I don't know what came over me..." Eric trailed off lending out a hand to help the doctor up. The doctor took Eric's hand remaining calm." No, I always have parents punch me out" the doctor said grinning. "Still it was..." Eric trailed off again. He closed his eyes for a second and then said

"I'm really sorry." The doctor smiled again, "I'm sure it's only temporary" the doctor said referring to Simon's memory.

Lucy smiled sadly as she held onto Kevin in a death grip. Her brother currently didn't even know she was his sister. Lucy looked at Kevin and tugged on his shirt sleeve. "He's sleeping, there's no point in staying we should go" she said, not even waiting for him to answer before she left the hospital room. The second she was out the door the tears started to flow. She heard the footsteps of Kevin chasing after her. He touched her arm and gently pulled her toward him in a hug. "Hey, it's going to be okay" Kevin said running fingers through the back of her hair. Lucy closed her eyes and prayed that he was right.

Ruthie picked at her arm cast angrily. The earthquake had caused this. Everything that was happening, everything that was torn apart, had it to blame. She couldn't even go home because there was nothing left of it. She didn't even know about the church. Her entire life was being torn out from under her and she hated it. She tried to call Peter, and of course failed to reach him. Every phone line in Glen Oak was currently attached to someone who could help them. If Mary had seen it that meant it was nation wide news. Ruthie walked over to the pay phone, put in her change and tried Peter's number for the last time. This time though, the phone actually rang. "Hello" was heard from the other end after the third ring. Ruthie knew the voice as Peter's mom, Paris. "Is Peter there?" Ruthie asked fear suddenly overcoming her. "No" Paris said on the other line. Ruthie panicked. Not there, but that would mean... that would mean... "He's in Illinois visiting his grandmother" Paris finished. Ruthie was overwhelmed with relief. Peter was fine and Simon, although short of his memory, would be fine too. Maybe things really were starting to change.

"Nothing's ever going to be the same" Ben looked over at Mary after she said that, seeing the disappointment in her eyes. He wasn't sure if she was disappointed in the doctors, in him, or in herself. "Look out there" she said limply gesturing to the window. Ben stole a glance, suddenly wishing he hadn't. Buildings were knocked over, either partially or completely. People were frantically looking for the people they love. Some of them would never see them again. "There's nothing left" Mary said limply starting to cry a little "no life, no faith, and no hope-""Hey"! Ben interrupted her. "What?" she asked him slightly annoyed that he interrupted her. "You know there was this old guy sitting next to me on the plane" Ben said, his eyes starting to get that far away look. "He had no wife, and no kids they all died at a young age, he himself seemed to be a sick man, he even had an arm missing from World War II." Ben said looking at Mary.

"So?" Mary asked wondering what this had to do with her. "All this crap happened to him and you know what he said to me?" "Get a life and stop asking about mine?" Mary said flatly. "He said hope dies last" Ben stated. "You can lose your family and your faith but you still have hope." He said. Mary was taken aback. She'd never seen this serious side of Ben before. "Be lucky you didn't lose anyone dear to you Mary, did you ever think about that? There are people out there with dead husband or wives or brothers and sisters, so stop feeling sorry for yourself and hope that your brother will take the time to regain his memory, and while you're at it be thankful he has the time to take!" Ben stared at Mary after he finished his speech. Mary looked back at him and out of the blue they kissed.

AN: WANTED TO WRITE MORE BUT THE COMPUTER GOT A VIRUS. WE HAD TO BUY A NEW ONE, SORRY THE CHAPTERS NOT THAT INTERSTING BUT THERE HAD TO BE FILLER BETWEEN ALL HELL AND HAVE A LITTLE HOPE... THE NEXT ONE WILL BE BETTER


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